A Gozitan man was cleared of the possession of cannabis after an appeal court found that the police had only found traces of the drug which the accused said he stopped using three years earlier.

Gozitan George Anthony Axiak, 29 from Victoria, had been conditionally discharged for 18 months when, last year, he was found guilty of the possession of cannabis resin on and before December 2010.

Mr Axiak, a soldier within the Armed Forces, appealed the judgment arguing that he had stopped smoking cannabis about three years before his arrest. He never took drugs when in the army.

Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri, in the appeal court, heard how on December 23 2010 police searched Mr Axiak's car and found a CD cover with traces of white powder. They then searched his room where they found two graters with traces of cannabis and a segment of what could have been a joint.

While experts determined that the graters had traces of the drug, the quantities were too small to weigh. Mr Axiak insisted that he had started smoking cannabis about five years earlier and stopped about three years before his arrest.

In fact, he said, when he joined the army, in May 2009, he was tested for the presence of narcotics. After that, several random tests were carried out and the result were always negative.

In light of all this the judge found that police had not proven that Mr Axiak used the drugs during the time period indicated in the charges brought against him and cleared him of the charge.